


The Time That Thou Has Lost and Spent

by Thistlerose



Category: Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-02
Updated: 2011-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-14 08:23:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thistlerose/pseuds/Thistlerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate and Adam, after Lymond's homecoming at the end of <i>Checkmate.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Time That Thou Has Lost and Spent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elishavah (eli)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eli/gifts).



> Written as a Yuletide 2007 treat. Originally posted [here](http://www.yuletidetreasure.org/archive/53/thetime.html).

Kuzum came running over the grass, his hair bright as Lymond's in the November sunlight, the puppy bouncing at his heels. Kate cried out and started toward him, heedless of her long skirt, but Adam reached him first.

He scooped Kuzum up and turned him from the hill where the others still stood, and where Marthe Crawford lay covered by their cloaks, her face blown off and her chest shattered by Austin Grey's bullets.

Kate arrived at his side a moment later. She put one hand on his forearm, and the other on Kuzum's ankle. The puppy whined and frisked at her feet.

"I heard a loud noise," Kuzum said. "Did someone get shot?"

"Yes," said Adam gravely, before Kate could concoct a story about hunters and an unfortunate deer.

"I want to see," insisted Kuzum.

"That you don't," Kate said firmly. "Let's go back to the house."

Kuzum twisted in Adam's arms. "I see Fippy. What's she doing?" he demanded. "Is she kissing someone? Is that my _father_? She's kissing my _father_?

"She is," said Kate wearily. "He's come back. But you're not to bother him. Not now, anyway. He's had a very long, hard journey and he needs his rest."

She glanced back and saw that Lymond was still kissing Philippa. His hands had gone from her hair to her waist, and he was holding her so close that, under the boughs and the green and white light, they appeared to be one person. _I would have given you my heart in a blackberry pie,_ she thought a little sadly. _I give you my daughter. It's the same thing, more or less._

Her hand, she noticed just then, was still touching Adam's arm. She removed it quickly, but smiled up at him.

Kuzum protested as they brought him back to the house, but was quieted by a cup of milk and a rather large piece of spiced cake. Kate sat with him while he had his snack, and Adam went back out to help with the bodies.

It was well into the afternoon when he returned, and Kuzum was sleeping, the puppy tucked under his chubby arm. Kate, who'd been reading by his bedside, rose at the sound of his entrance and, putting her book gently aside, went to him. They met in a hallway splashed with deep amber light. She reached for him. He caught her hands and held them.

For a little while, neither spoke. Then Adam said, "Richard, Jerott, and Archie Abernethy will be taking Marthe to Midculter for burial. Sybilla will be staying here for a little while longer."

"And Francis?"

"He'll be staying too."

"And you?"

"I'll be leaving." Under her steady brown gaze, he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "But I'll be coming back," he said quietly. "If you like."

"I do like," Kate heard herself say. Her voice had hurried ahead of her thoughts; she struggled to catch up. "Please do. I understand you have a duty, but I like having you here." She felt bold, shy, girlish, old. She knew she'd witnessed the breaking of a spell, and yet she felt enchanted.

Long shadows fell across the hallway; between them, the light was almost rusty. In other rooms, people were moving about, talking. Kate thought she heard a strangled sob – Jerott's.

"I should go now," said Adam. "But I _will_ come back."

"Yes," said Kate. But then a terrible loneliness shook her and she clutched his hands more tightly. "Yes," she said, "but first—"

But she would have a kiss from him, the first in a good many years, and perhaps her last for some time, but not forever. A good kiss made better by his fingers lacing with hers, and the beating of his heart, and the pain and pleasure of one enchantment breaking inside her and becoming many.

12/24/2007


End file.
